The hirings by President-elect Obama have been getting lots of ink, but what’s the federal jobs outlook for folks who aren’t Hillary Clinton or Tom Daschle?

The press has covered the political appointments with great enthusiasm, but the fact is there’s about 5,000 political appointments, and generally speaking, you have to be politically connected to get them. The bigger story is that no matter how bad the economy may get, the federal government will be hiring almost 200,000 people in all types of fields all over this country every year for the foreseeable future.

What kind of jobs are we talking about?

Almost every type of position hired in the private sector is hired by the government, from blue-collar workers to business professionals. And with a record number of baby boomers retiring, the government has been rolling out special recruitment and internship programs, as well as training programs designed to give young professionals experience and fast-track them to management. These programs pay well, and there’s dozens of them in every field, from banking to art to the sciences.

What’s the best way to land one of these jobs?

There are a lot of backdoor ways into government jobs, as well as applying off of USA Jobs and agency Web sites. With these internship programs, there are fellowships for experienced professionals that people frequently segue into permanent jobs. Federal agencies use workers from temp agencies, and those jobs frequently segue into permanent jobs as well. And there are job fairs. Many agencies have them, and often they do on-the-spot hiring.

How is Obama’s impending arrival changing the federal jobs picture?

Here in DC he’s definitely created a new level of excitement. There’s been an effort under way, really since Al Gore started it, to modernize and streamline the federal hiring process, and that will continue in the Obama years, I’m sure. And he’s already stated point blank that he wants to make it cool to work for the government.